Drop of Water
by JeffC FTW
Summary: A doctor is called in the late night to prepare the body of an old man who died in a spiritual trance. When he finishes the job, a magical ring catches his attention, and the jewel is taken from the corpse...but what happens when you steal from the dead?


**Oneshot that is Kabuto-centric, for the first time. :D Often I had him in stories, though mostly in the background and a couple times in lead (one example being "The Plague" which is also by my hand). This came to me when watching the 1963 horror anthology Black Sabbath, which has three tales presented by Boris Karloff himself - and he stars in one of them - and this story is that of the one titled "A Drop of Water" which tells of a haunted nurse. Want to know more than that? Read and find out!**

**A word of warning: try reading this for the first time at night before going to bed if you must, for additional scaring effect. (evil laughter) **

**I own neither Naruto nor Black Sabbath. Plus, this is a oneshot, so there won't be a continuation.**

_Do you believe in ghosts? _

_If not, then you must admit there are things that frighten us. Even some that don't have to be seen to be believed. _

_You can't deny there are SIGNS from the dead..._

~o~

The storm was raging that it was a miracle he got home by the time the sky was black.

The street lights - and those outside the window of his mediocre apartment - were flashing on and off with the circuits attacked by the thunder.

Now he could settle down for the evening after a long day of administering shots, sewing minor accident injuries and such - which was his passion - and just enjoy the take-out from the sushi bar he often stopped by after work. When he wasn't tired as hell, that was. He knew how to feed himself at home, but sometimes he didn't feel like it.

Kabuto loved his impending career, his "bright and shiny" future, but even that didn't come without some hardships that involved an occasional cup of sake to relieve the stress. Though the sad fact was that he hadn't had real friends as a result much of his life, because of bullying in childhood for obvious reasons - his glasses, his need for knowledge, ideals in caring for people - and a girlfriend who expected too much. _No time for a girl who can "love" me for the way I am._

Tonight was one of those latter nights, previously mentioned. He was just simply too exhausted, but before he could relax and enjoy his meal, his mobile was ringing. Gritting his teeth, he picked it up, his small box of rice, sushi and soy-dipped dango abandoned for now, and answered while trying not to sound biting.

The person on the other end was whom he recognized as Yuri, the maid of the elderly medium of the town - a man who was once of medicine but long since abandoned it in favor of "something greater" which left half the community in a state of disbelief that some of them called him crazy and didn't bother to associate with him.

_"M-M-Mr. Yakushi? Oh, thank the gods, I got a hold of you! I need your help! It's Master Orochimaru! He's dead, and I need you to come and help prepare the body for burial tomorrow."_

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. The poor idiot was asking him to go out there, to the hermit's estate, and at this late hour to prep the body - and the old man had DIED?! When did that happen, and why wasn't he notified? _Or the doctor had been there and left it as it was?! Why wasn't the corpse taken right away?!_

There were so many questions that he wished he had answers to, but bitterly, he supposed he had no choice. Prepping the dead wasn't a foreign matter to him. He recalled when he found his mother dead on the kitchen floor at their home, but that was the first time he saw a dead body and had been traumatized to the point he sometimes saw her in his sleep. "Why can't this wait until early tomorrow morning?" Kabuto demanded irritably, letting it slip through the cracks. "Why didn't you call the doctor first?"

On second thought, he'd been an idiot too quick to say those harsh words. He could do this, but the damned time! She knew that, too, but she was so scared and desperate that she must have not known anyone else. Exhaling sharply, he decided to acquiesce and get his raincoat and umbrella, then get into his car to go over there.

_Just hope that nothing will happen to prevent me from sleeping tonight. _

He had to just put his rice in the microwave and the sushi and sweets in the fridge before he left, finishing with turning off all his lights so that the blinking outside ones poured in with an eerie, flashing phosphorescence of purple-blue.

~o~

Another miracle to make it out here in under half an hour the best he could. He had every reason to be pissed off, being called here at this time of night just for THIS!

But perhaps he could do his best to make it quick and then be back home before the hour got too late.

It was said all over the news, he heard on the radio, that the medium he was heading towards was dead of a possible heart attack, but there were witnesses who had seen the death and then fled out of fear, too scared to even come back here. At least, that was what they were saying. Kabuto scoffed; here in Japan, there were still people who believed in nonsense like the supernatural. He NEVER did.

And this woman who allowed him to come in certainly was one of the more superstitious ones. "Oh, thank God you're here! It took you long enough." Yuri quickly closed the door behind him. Scoffing, Kabuto shrugged off his coat which was soaked despite not being in the rain too long.

"Long enough? I got here as fast as I could. A fine idea of you to call me over at this hour!" he snapped to the poor woman.

"I really did try to manage on my own, but I couldn't bear it," she insisted, and started to lead him down the corridor to where her master was "resting". She was taming her frizzy dark hair which had flecks of gray - she wasn't that old, perhaps a little over forty - as they were walking, then clasped her hands together before herself in a feeble attempt to stop them from trembling. He wouldn't be surprised if the palms started sweating. "But I must have to warn you: you should NOT touch any of Master Orochimaru's things. He told me there would be a _terrible _curse on anyone who did...by dying a horrible death! Such is the power of the medium..."

But her fears fell on deaf ears for him because his beliefs were nothing like she was rambling about. Except nothing he said would ever make a difference to people like her. Though he did his best to not do anything of the sort, just for her sake.

Looking around, Kabuto frowned at the way the old man lived. He was eccentric, as they all said, but harmless and kind. He contributed to the town for many generations in more ways than one. But now he was dead, and he had no one by his side except Yuri - and a meowing cat as well as a snake in the tank. The serpent was named Manda, the feline Kiko. And all these other trinkets and charms, the texts and scrolls...how could anyone have such an "unhealthy" fascination with this rubbish?

Now they arrived at the bedroom, where the curtains were drawn before the sleeping area; you could see the body, but not a completely clear image. Except when Yuri hesitated, Kabuto became miffed that she wasn't even going to help him. His nerves were getting grated by the minutes. So he went over there and threw the gauze to the sides -

\- and the sight could be the imagery that would haunt the smallest child to even the most experienced adult. Only it unnerved him rather than frightened him to his core.

There lay Orochimaru himself, but he did not look anywhere near peaceful as the dead would often be. Rather, his expression was frozen permanently in a place that resembled a demonic mask: the eyes were wide opened as if keeping you in place, the lips tautly parted to reveal the teeth which were clenched together. The skin stretched over the bones to show their prominence. Long black hair was spread over the cot like a halo, stringy and not brushed. He was still in that purple-lined, gray _yukata_ that was his preference - and then Kabuto saw that trinket around the dead man's right ring finger.

_Black rhodium, centered with a circle of agate bursting with layers of purple...looks valuable. _

Personally, he wasn't fond of jewelry, but this ring in particular...

"Poor Master Orochimaru," Yuri moaned far behind him. "I haven't touched him even before you came. He's just as the doctor left him."

"...so I see." He had to take off his glasses and rub them on the edge of his collared shirt, both to get the faint smudges off his vision as well as purely to ease his conscience.

He had to distract himself from looking at that tempting ring by asking if the burial kimono was prepared, and Yuri affirmed that it was, then led him out of the room and to the next on the right which had the laundry and equipment. She explained that she finished ironing it, then said it was the finest silk he deserved - and just like that, she returned to her fearful tirade. That cat was following them all the time.

"He died all alone with not one friend at his bedside. Not even a loved one - no one at all. And why? They're _afraid!_"

He shook his head, examining the garment personally and at the same time, wishing he had a drink. Not only was it the time, but the woman's paranoia. "Afraid of what?"

"Everyone says the same thing: spirits of the dead KILLED him. Ghosts."

_That's just plain ridiculous! There are no such things as ghosts, like in the old stories. _"I highly doubt that was the cause," he said, accepting the cup of sake with great rigor, since Yuri must have read his mind when she said she needed one, too, after everything. "It was a heart attack. I know because the doctor and I kept him going on his regular injections and his saturated diets to decrease the risk." _Except at his age, his number would be up sooner or later._

Orochimaru had been a healthy youth since long before Kabuto Yakushi was born, with no history of symptoms either, though as he got older, he began to display the signs that were lack of exercise as well as his diets changing. He would be kept - though changing time to time - on the usual medication from aspirin to nitroglycerin to treat and prevent the chest pain; he would even be on heparin to prevent blockage of the blood. Kabuto wondered if in his final moments, the old man was feeling what any normal heart attack victim would: shortness of breath, lethargy, or nausea...

Once again, Yuri denied his medical expertise when he told her all of this. "I know how sick he was, Mr. Yakushi, but you weren't there when it happened," she insisted, leaning across the slab with the burial robe. "The way he died looked like it was the predicted attack, but it happened during one of those _spiritual seances. _He was in a trance, you hear? A trance!" She downed her cup in a single swallow, almost making him laugh.

"Talking with the dead was a regular obsession with him, the poor thing. And every Friday, no matter what!"

"And with a heart delicate as his," Kabuto said, scoffing and picking up the robe after finishing his cup. He wasn't going to have anymore, not until he got home. "Let's get started."

_Talking with the dead...what idiotic mumbo-jumbo._

But when they were both back into the bedroom - and once more, Yuri staying back there, letting him do all the work and saying prayers - he got to switching the stale gray garment made of cheap material for the lustrous silk-satin white, and then told Yuri to go get him a pair of sandals since there was no way the man could be without them, as well as an amulet or whatever since it was customary to leave something with the dead. "Are you going to stay here tonight?"

"Certainly not! I'm going to leave with you!"

He couldn't believe it; he would have expected the woman to have some backbone to remain with her dead master just for the night, which shouldn't kill no one. "If not you, then who?" he snapped. _And the cat and snake, too!_

"We only choose to." By this time, she was walking out of the room so she could find the good pair since they clearly weren't in here. "But all I know is that the priest will come in the morning, and then the remains will be taken and put into the coffin. It's no longer my concern who stays and who doesn't."

It was here and now that he was left alone with the body, and that meant the power of temptation overtook him. He found himself looking at the ring. Agate itself was a stone of protection, said to ward off nightmares and stress but also to awaken gifts you never thought you had. But now he had an answer to one of his problems in life since he was sure that no one would notice, or would they? There was a chance, since Yuri claimed no one else would stay, that a burglar could slip in and steal something they thought was valuable in these walls.

Despite being done with medical school but a year and a half away from being fully licensed, he was struggling with paying off his tuition, and depending on how valuable this ring was, perhaps he could trade it off for a good amount to take another boulder off his shoulders.

First: he called to Yuri and asked if she found them yet, to which she hadn't, but he had to hurry.

It was a struggle to get the ring off that finger, since clearly it wasn't only rigor mortis, but the digit itself had swollen somehow - and when he finally got it off, it landed somewhere on the ground. Kabuto cursed to himself as he dove down to the table against the wall on his right. There it was, but by the time he grabbed it and was starting to stand back up, he jumped, startled, when that damned feline jumped onto his back, yowling and digging its claws into his back which was covered by crisp cotton, nearly tearing through the fabric. As a consequence, Kabuto jerked up and hit himself mildly against the table, knocking over the glass of water that was there, but he didn't know if it was filled or not.

"What happened?!" Yuri cried as she was coming back in, this time with the sandals, at the same time Kabuto had the recovered ring in his pocket. Thank goodness she didn't notice.

"Nothing at all," Kabuto lied, hoping he didn't sound frazzled. "Heard something and thought it was a mouse. The cat jumped me, too."

So, he took the sandals, glad she didn't look closely at her master's remains to notice something was gone. He completely ignored the warning of stealing from the dead, since what could really happen?

He couldn't stand looking upon that face, so he worked to close the eyes the best he could, before going to finish the job by putting the sandals on the cold, dead feet - and then he heard the sound of a fly buzzing. Scowling, he saw one resting on one of Orochimaru's fingers...the very same finger where the ring once was. _The first fly to come and be drawn to the dead's putrid stench. I can smell it already. _

Flinching, Kabuto swatted that fly away, but when he looked at the dead face, he sharply gasped upon seeing the _eyes wide opened. _

"My gods, what is it?" Yuri harshly whispered when she saw, too. Could this have gotten more unsettling? Now he knew they both had to get out of this unnerving place. Job done, they both could go their separate ways. She had a family waiting for her, but his flat and his meal were his priority. And so was the thing in his pocket that he'd taken from the dead man...

"Nothing! Let's just go now. We're done." The sooner they were out of here, the better. But first, there was the sound of water dropping, and it had come from the fallen glass on the side table. Clear liquid hit the floorboards in a singular heartbeat rhythm. He picked the glass up and placed it upright, leaving it there.

But even as they both left the house, the maid locking the door, Kabuto couldn't shake off the terrible feeling which didn't come from the cold of the storm that was still going on and wouldn't cease anytime soon after all.

~o~

If he was gonna sleep tonight, he would need all the help he could get. And as soon as he was back inside his flat, the rain and thunder were still at each other's throats, so to speak.

Nice hot shower? Check.

His meal in the microwave and the fridge? Also done.

But something else, as he sat at the kitchen table, in a t-shirt and flannels, with his dango and sake in front of him, the latter to help him go to sleep after this: he had never felt so exhausted but tingling in the spine in the very same place he was supposed to feel safe within. Perhaps it was because he couldn't stop thinking about that corpse's face...those eyes glaring accusingly at him but saying no words...

_You're scaring yourself for nothing, Kabuto. _He finished the last stick at this time, and it was then that he found himself with the ring in front of him on the table, trying to figure out what to do with it, and putting it on his right forefinger, gaining that foreign yet tingling feeling.

Now he was at a dilemma: should he REALLY sell this or keep it? The urge was pulling him in the latter direction because the more he looked at it, the more he liked it...

His train of thought was cut off when there was that damned buzzing again - and there was a FLY on his finger, where the ring was. On instinct, Kabuto lashed out and swatted the infernal, germ-ridden thing away until he heard it no more and didn't see it either. Grunting, he picked up his empty food boxes and threw them out.

That was when he heard IT: the sound of plopping water. It was coming from the sink. He frowned. _That's strange; I haven't used the sink since earlier. _He gave the faucet a good turn until it stopped altogether. If he hadn't turned it on, then how did...?

There was more plopping of water somewhere else, and it turned out to be in his bathroom where he had showered not too long ago. He'd just about had enough of this; these drops of water which made him think about that glass which was knocked over at old man Orochimaru's house - he was just scaring himself silly. Yawning, Kabuto looked at the time and realized how tired he really was, but he needed one more drink to do the trick before he went ahead into the bed -

\- and then there were more noises. This time, it was distant banging that made him jump on his feet and his glasses fall off, but he pushed them back into place. He rushed to the kitchen to grab a knife in case it was a _burglar. _

Common sense told him to NEVER ask who was there. If his home was broken into - _yes, that would explain the water dropping in certain places _\- then he was going to protect himself. His ears followed where the clanging was coming from: a window was opened, but there didn't seem to be anyone around. No dirty footprints, no water sloshed. Absolutely nothing. Kabuto even checked the closets outside his bedroom, and all was good. But that meant one more place to look.

Before he could head there, he was reduced to none other than a screaming little girl when _the lights of his apartment went out, save for the blinking bluish lights outside. _

The noises that buzzed in his ears were so horrible that he fell to his own floor, his body out of control with his own emotions: _flies...water...and are those voices taunting me without words?! _

Kabuto managed to pull himself together, standing up with the help of a chair, and rushed to the table where his cell phone was - the outside lights had aided him with the brief search - so that he could turn on the flashlight which illuminated the best it could. Now he really needed to get to bed, and totally ignored the sound of the cat that occurred somewhere, not even bothering to care if it was outside or in here - and when he opened the door to the very last place where there should have been hope, the intruder he never thought he would find was laying right there, on his BED.

His scream might have torn his vocal chords to shreds when he saw the figure of _Orochimaru_ in his burial robe, with the frozen, tooth-baring glare and gleaming yellow serpentine eyes hooked on him, and _rising _up in slow-motion.

If Kabuto Yakushi hadn't been scared of the corpse man's face, he certainly was now.

He dropped his mobile, but luckily it didn't shatter because of its protective casing. Quickly, he turned and ran out, made way for the door, but before he could unlock it, there was a horrid hissing sound. Looking down, he recognized the snake Manda who bared his fangs and threatened to latch them onto his flesh if he came any closer.

Kabuto whirled around, turning only to find the glowering specter in his own kitchen chair, cradling a black and white cat in his lap. The petrified physician slapped his hands over his face, wishing with his heart that it was all just a dream that he would wake up from...

When he opened his eyes, the figure was gone, but he couldn't breathe a sigh of relief, for he felt a HAND touch the back of his head. Howling, Kabuto leaped back and saw that hand outstretched from around the corner he came from. There was nowhere else for him to go; that damned snake had blocked his way from getting out, and there were more at the windows. You could still hear more flies coming around.

But there was still Orochimaru, too, advancing on him and floating off his feet - no, wait, that pure robe covered so that the victim saw nothing down there. Just like in the tales of vengeful spirits who came back with intent on harming the living out of deep desire for revenge.

Which was exactly what he was now.

_Oh, dear God...this is all my fault. I took that ring. If I had listened to Yuri..._but it was too late for regrets.

His own hands were going up to his own throat, and there was no telling if it was of his own fearful volition or if it was the will of the spirit of the witch man who continued to float his way with frail, bony hands outstretched. That monstrous face continued to glare at him, unchanged, and permanently etched with murderous intent.

"Please...have mercy..."

~o~

The body found was covered with a sheet while the talking occurred.

Not many hours later, the police arrived at the apartment of Kabuto Yakushi, after neighbors heard a distress during the night. A handful rushed upstairs to try and get the door open, but with no luck until the concierge thought to take action herself by unlocking the door herself with the spare key she had.

The young doctor was laying there in the current position when the group found him, the manager and the residents frightened by what they found, and there was no time wasted when the police were phoned.

For the while, it appeared that Kabuto Yakushi "died of fright", though a scientific reason was more reliable upon further investigation. He was apparently ready to go to bed after enjoying his evening take-out, but somehow collapsed on the floor. His mobile lay outside his bedroom door, no calls made since earlier in the evening. And there were no signs of forced entry, no signs of violence - except his own hands around his throat - but the pathologist present for the collection of the corpse did find a peculiar detail after pulling the sheet down herself: the mild bruising around his right forefinger, which was evident that someone had stolen a ring.

"Strange case: no evidence of a struggle, yet he looks completely contorted with fear. Almost as if he'd been frightened to death...seen something too _horrible _to live through..."

No one seemed disturbed by the distant buzzing of flies, which were naturally attracted to the putrescence of the dead, than they were at the sight of the frozen horror on the ashen face which had the eyeglasses askew.

**Years ago in my freshman high school year, my best friend and I borrowed a Ouija board from a classmate - and let's say it was scary enough that didn't involve what you see in the movies. But still. (cold sweat) **

**Agate - considered a protective stone. It is believed to attract strength and offer protection from bad dreams, stress and the draining of energy. Agate is said to balance energies and awaken talents.**

**The information about heart attacks is accurate, as is the listed medication.**

**The cat present - it is named Kiko, after Izumi Uchiha's summons in one of my stories, "His Chosen Bride". **

**Reviews in nice, good detail - and no flames! :D**


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